Monthly Archive for September, 2006

: September, 2006

Wired has posted “Rebuilding Microsoft,” a story from the October edition about Ray Ozzie’s rise and the company’s future. Click here to read it. The Mini-Microsoft blogger offers his commentary in this post. …

David Vronay, research manager for the Windows User Experience Compliance team, tells the fascinating story of what happened when Microsoft decided to offer a culturally sensitive alternative to the traditional Minesweeper game in Windows Vista. (Link via Nathan Weinberg’s Inside Microsoft blog.) …

This just in: Microsoft says its Zune portable media player will be released on Nov. 14 and retail for $249.99. The company made it official this morning. So much for all that earlier speculation and leaks from “moles on the inside.” …

Microsoft has finished another remodel of a high-tech facility where it displays its vision for the future direction of consumer technology (see story). The company is unveiling a new version of the Microsoft Home, contained in a series of rooms inside its Redmond conference center. Click on the images below for videos of two of the new prototypes included in the facility. …

As of this morning, Google appears to have resolved at least some of the problems that Seattle residents experienced Tuesday when trying out the newly expanded Google Transit trip-planning service for King County bus routes. …

Microsoft has filed suit against “viodentia,” the pseudonym for the person behind the FairUse4WM technology for stripping digital-rights management restrictions from Windows Media files. See coverage of the suit by CNet News.com and an earlier interview with “viodentia” by Engadget. …

Microsoft’s Xbox division announced the North American price for the upcoming Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive this morning. The accessory will retail for just under $200, the company says. Microsoft said the drive will be released in November, but the company didn’t give a precise date. …

Wallop, a social-networking company based on technology from a Microsoft Research project, has landed $10 million in venture-capital funding. See this morning’s story by the P-I’s John Cook for more information. …

You may recall the minor dust-up over Microsoft’s plan to prevent Windows Vista users from using the control panel to disable the startup sound. Well, late last week, on the Windows Vista team blog, the company said it changed its mind. The control panel will now include a setting for switching off the startup sound. …